A Journey from 1548 FIDE to Grandmaster

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Playing with Super GM Anish Giri !

A few days ago, I was on a chess server and I got paired with chess prodigy GM Anish Giri. It was Akshat Chandra vs Anish Giri. I was electrified. Here I was playing a 2700+ Top 20 player in the world. We played out to a Draw, and after that I decided to strike up a conversation with him. I was still shaking in disbelief, at the opportunity to play an elite player. I was stunned when he wrote back. Tingling with excitement, I carried on the conversation. Anish is a modest and jovial person to talk to. He told me when he was about my age, he was playing in Wijk an Zee, where a top 10 GM, Peter Leko started talking to him! Anish said he was thrilled and was able to relate to my excitement of talking to a 2700 + GM. We talked for about 30 minutes – about tournaments he’d recommend for someone at my level, and about the sublime Amsterdam Waffles. 🙂 Another Dutch delicacy called ‘Hagelslag’ (chocolate sprinkles), was recommended by him. So next time, be sure to try that out when you visit the Netherlands 🙂 Anish was also preparing for the Reykjavik Open 2013, where he is the top seed. He was in fact in Reykjavik at the time, and his opening round was the next day. With 2 rounds to go, Anish is on 6/8, and plays fellow Dutchman Erwin L’ami in R9. I wish Anish the very best. Good luck, Anish ! And thank you for making a young chess buff’s day!